Laguna West Sacramento California

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 11 JULY-SEPTEMBER 1994

RESIDENTIAL LAGUNA WEST SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

PROJECT TYPE

A 1,045-acre neotraditional planned community centered on a 100-acre town center and a 73-acre lake. The plan calls for 3,370 residential units—of which 300 are completed—as well as retail and employment uses, including a recently completed Apple Computer facility. The development has a pedestrian-friendly environment, including attractive streetscapes, an accessible lakefront, and a planned mixed-use town center featuring shops, a village green, and a community center.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Neotraditional plan and development standards Transit-oriented design Lake as amenity Homes with front porches

DEVELOPER

AKT Development Corp. 7700 College Town Drive Sacramento, California 95826 916-383-2500

SITE PLANNER

Peter Calthorpe Calthorpe Associates 246 First Street, Suite 400 San Francisco, California 94105 415-777-0181

PROJECT MANAGER

River West Developments 2424 K Street, Suite 200 Sacramento, California 95816 916-446-1115 GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Laguna West is a 1,045-acre planned community taking shape outside Sacramento, California. The project incorporates neotraditional planning and design elements to emulate a classic American small town and uses a large lake as the focal point for the various neighborhoods. Designed to be transit-friendly, the community is built around a town center that will include residential, school, work, civic, and retail uses within easy walking distance of each other. Upon buildout, Laguna West will include approximately 3,370 residential units (2,170 single-family homes and 1,200 multifamily units), a 73-acre lake (divided into several sections), parks, daycare facilities, an elementary school, and a church, as well as commercial, office, and industrial uses.

Approximately 300 homes have been completed as of August 1994, ranging from 1,100-square-foot homes on small lots to custom homes of more than 3,000 square feet. All homes thus far are single-family attached, although multifamily units are planned for the future. The project offers a unique combination of lakefront living and a traditional town setting that has appealed to homebuyers within a tough California market.

THE SITE AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The community is located just south of the Sacramento city limits and ten miles south of downtown Sacramento, adjacent to Interstate 5, a major north-south highway running the length of central California. This Sacramento corridor is known for offering a range of housing types, including many affordable and starter homes. To provide direct access to the site, the developer paid for and built a $5.6 million interchange off of I-5. Before the start of the project, the site was largely open grazing land with few trees.

Immediately to the east of Laguna West is the nearly completed planned community of Laguna Creek, which was the first project undertaken in this location by the developer. Laguna Creek was developed according to typical suburban residential development principles, including wide curvilinear streets and typical suburban home designs with prominent garage fronts. A similar approach was planned for Laguna West, and an initial subdivision plan was developed along these lines before it was scrapped for a new plan developed by architect Peter Calthorpe, a major proponent of neotraditional planning and pedestrian-friendly communities. Calthorpe has since designed some of the lakefront homes and serves as a consultant to the developer to ensure that new homebuilder plans meet the spirit of the overall community concept. The new plan was inspired in part by older Sacramento neighborhoods such as East Sacramento, Land Park, and Curtis Park, which were well known to Phil Angelides, president of River West, the project manager for Laguna West.

The developer—AKT Development Corp. in partnership with River West Developments—has developed the plan and the infrastructure, including the lake, streets, and community center, and sells parcels to homebuilders. The community center and central open space were developed first, and the eastern half of the project, including roads, infrastructure, community landscaping, and part of the lake, is well underway. Bank of America served as the primary lender for a portion of the project; the balance was developer-financed.

The developer submitted the current plan to the county in 1989; the county supported the plan and approved it within 12 months, even though many variances were required for setbacks and street width standards. The county has since hired Peter Calthorpe to write its guidelines for transit oriented development as part of its new comprehensive plan.

PLANNING AND DESIGN

The overall plan consists of a mixed-use town center surrounded by the lake on three sides and connected by radial boulevards to parcels on the other side of the lake. While neotraditional planning concepts often involve the use of grid streets and discourage curvilinear streets and culs-de-sac, Laguna West uses all of these concepts. The town center follows a rectilinear pattern, but the other areas of the community include many curvilinear streets and culs-de-sac. However, the streets do provide many connections and a variety of choices for going from point A to point B, unlike many community plans that restrict internal circulation patterns. The plan also provides numerous access points—seven total—to Laguna Boulevard, the main arterial connecting the project to I-5.

Two of the key planning goals are to create a true sense of community and to focus on public spaces. The lake, finished parks, waterfront promenade, jogging trails, and pedestrian bridges are accessible to all residents of the Laguna West community; about half of the lake frontage is accessible to all residents. Throughout the project, streets have been designed for pedestrians as well as cars. Wide walkways make the streets safe, neighborly, and pleasant to walk on. Eventually streets will be lined with more than 15,000 shade trees.

The highly walkable 100-acre town center includes the Laguna Town Hall, the Town Square Park, medium-density housing, and a transit stop at the town hall, which became operational in September 1994. Future plans call for more medium-density housing, including multifamily units; shops along Laguna Main Street; and a church. The centerpiece of the community consists of the town hall and the park, which features a playground, basketball court, and rose garden and connects to the lake. The town hall, one of the first elements completed, combines the functions of a community and recreation center with classrooms and an indoor theater/outdoor amphitheater. The indoor multipurpose room can accommodate 500 persons; the outdoor amphitheater can hold more than 2,000. A daycare facility—underway now—and a church are planned for adjacent sites.

The lake provides a waterfront ambience while achieving several important environmental and design purposes, including open-space preservation, nonchemical water quality treatment, flood detention, and irrigation. The lake is actually a series of six separate lakes—three that are completed—divided by roadways. Lake water was pumped in to create the lake, which is now fed primarily by runoff. Special plants are used to manage nutrients and pollution. Once or twice a year, an aquatic plant harvester cuts the plants, thereby removing the metals, oils, and nutrients typically found in drainage waters from developed areas.

One of the key principles of housing design in Laguna West is avoidance of a streetfront pattern dominated by two- and three-car garage fronts. The number of homes with prominent front garages is restricted within each neighborhood, and in general garages must be recessed so they are not the most prominent feature of the house. The design guidelines specify that homes must be constructed with either front porches or strongly articulated entrance features. Housing units are allowed a lesser frontyard setback for front porches and entries and a 20-foot setback for the garage; the garage must be at least five feet behind the building line. In general, homes are placed 12 to 15 feet from the street, and each single-family home has an average of two shade trees per lot, planted in a row along the sidewalk, to create a shady canopy.

One innovative planning concept is the use of short culs-de-sac bumped into the lake along Benedix Way and Daylor Way. While many lakefront communities surround the lake with private homes, this plan allows the developer to provide attractive custom lots on the lake and still maintain visual and physical access to the lake for all community residents.

Five housing products are currently available. Four of them are production homes ranging in size from 1,100 to 2,650 square feet. Custom lots are also offered, ranging from 8,500 to 20,300 square feet. Edgewater, one of the first neighborhoods started, consists of homes designed by Calthorpe and located on small lots in the town center. The houses are oriented toward the lake and include small porch/patio areas facing the water. A public walkway lines the lake in front of most of these homes, which are raised several feet above the walkway to provide lake views and privacy for their frontyards. One design problem to be overcome was that these houses backed up onto a prominent street; to avoid a wall of garages on that street, designers placed garages perpendicular to the street facing each other.

Designers encountered a similar problem with the Lakeshore homes built on one of the two planned islands. These homes faced an internal street on the island, with their backs to the main boulevard, East Lake Drive. Designers decided to hide the backyards from this boulevard with an attractive wall. Another of the housing types consists of porch-front houses with access to garages through alleys. The county has limited this type of development, however, because of concerns about safety and security.

Landscape corridors and other public spaces are planted with vegetation that uses 30 to 50 percent less water than traditional landscaping. Guidelines describe how to use native shade trees, flowering shrubs, groundcovers, and flowers to design gardens that use less water. One experiment is the use of tree boxes placed in the parking lanes and occupying part of the street right-of-way. These tree boxes define the parking areas and narrow the street, slowing through-traffic, but they are not completely successful visually and are a potential driving hazard, as they could easily be hit by a passing car. The developer has limited their use in the more recent sections of the community.

MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT

The marketing theme for Laguna West is "An Idea Whose Time Has Come. Again." The project has been featured in many national media such as Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC-TV's Good Morning America. This free publicity has helped greatly in positioning the project within the market as a unique and exceptional place to live.

The target market is largely middle-income buyers, but the project has been able to capture upper-income buyers as well through its custom lots. Production homes are priced from $139,950 to $224,990, and custom lots from $70,000 to $185,000, usually resulting in homes from $300,000 to $500,000. Homebuilders active in the community include Pulte Home Corporation, Richmond American Homes, Lexington Homes, Sunland Communities, and Elliott Homes. Nearly 50 percent of the land developed for single-family housing has been sold to homebuilders thus far, and homes have been selling at the rate of approximately ten a month; so far more than 300 homes or lots have been sold.

In addition, the development has appealed to companies looking for new locations. Apple Computer opened a $20 million facility at Laguna West in 1992, with 450,000 square feet of space and 150 employees. The facility quickly expanded to include manufacturing, with more than 1,200 employees, and Apple became the region's tenth-largest employer. Apple recently purchased 40 adjacent acres of land at Laguna West for further expansion.

The Elk Grove Community Services District owns and manages the town hall, which was built and financed by the developer. It has proved to be an attractive community asset and is used frequently for community events, serving the larger Laguna Creek and Elk Grove communities as well as Laguna West.

EXPERIENCE GAINED

The principles of neotraditional and pedestrian-oriented planning in large-scale developments do not necessarily conflict with the need for effective automobile circulation; at Laguna West the street design actually provides better circulation for automobiles than in many typical subdivisions. The streets are laid out in a more linear and connected pattern with fewer dead ends, blocks and neighborhoods that are easy to understand, and numerous options for going from one place to another.

While the developers wanted to create a variety of housing types and a somewhat urban feel in the project, they quickly recognized that their plans for attached townhouses along the lake were not as marketable as small-lot, single-family houses. In California, homebuyers tend to prefer single-family homes, even on very small lots, over attached houses.

While community marketing offices and centers can be useful in many projects, the community information center in the town hall at Laguna West has been closed, for the developer found that most potential buyers prefer to seek out the various builder models without visiting the general office. PROJECT DATA

LAND USE INFORMATION

Site Area: 1,045 acres Total Dwelling Units Planned: 3,370 Total Dwelling Units Completed: 300 Gross Density: 65 units per acre Average Net Density: 8.0 units per acre

LAND USE PLAN Percent of Acres Site

Residential 533 51%

Lake 73 8

Parks 38 3

Office 95 9

Daycare and 16 2 school

Commercial 53 5

Industrial 237 22

Total 1,045 100%

DEVELOPMENT COST INFORMATION (TO DATE)1

Site Acquisition Cost Not available

Site Improvement Costs2 Excavation/grading $10,000,000

Sewer/water/drainage 15,000,000

Paving/curbs/sidewalks 8,000,000

Landscaping/irrigation 8,300,000

Fees/general conditions 2,000,000

Town hall 1,700,000

Total $45,000,000

Soft Costs3 Architecture/engineering $500,000

Project management 1,000,000

Marketing 2,500,000

Legal/accounting 500,000

Taxes/insurance 6,000,000

Construction interest and fees 4,000,000 Total $14,500,000

Total Development Cost (to date)1: $59,500,000 Construction Cost per Square Foot (single-family residential): $40

RESIDENTIAL UNIT INFORMATION Lot Size Unit Size Number of Current Range of Sales (Square (Square Units Unit Type Prices Feet) Feet) Planned/Built

Single-family 3,650-6,200 1,100-2,000 1,100/175 $130,000-$180,000

Single-family 8,700 1,800-2,650 770/125 $170,000-$234,000

Custom 8,500-20,300 1,800-4,000 300/15 $250,000-$500,000

Multifamily NA NA 1,200/0 NA

DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

Site Purchased: June 1990 Planning Started: June 1990 Construction Started: June 1990 Sales Started: March 1991 First Closing: May 1991 Phase I Completed: December 1995 (estimated) Project Completed: 2005 (estimated)

Notes

1Excluding land cost. Costs do not include any homebuilding costs. 2Includes construction-related soft costs. 3Includes nonconstruction-related soft costs only.

DIRECTIONS

From Sacramento Metropolitan Airport: Take Interstate 5 south to the Laguna Boulevard exit, approximately ten miles south of downtown. Turn left on Laguna Boulevard. Entrance is on the right.

Driving Time: Approximately 25 minutes in nonpeak traffic.

The Project Reference File is intended as a resource tool for use by the subscribers in improving the quality of future projects. Data contained herein were made available by the Development team and constitute a report on, not an endorsement of, the project by ULI - The Urban Land Institute.